Written Answers Friday 14 January 2011

Scottish Executive

Business

Jeremy Purvis (Tweeddale, Ettrick and Lauderdale) (LD): To ask the Scottish Executive what the budget is for each Business Improvement District (BID) project, showing (a) amounts raised from businesses by BID levies and (b) grants.

John Swinney: This information is not held centrally. Business Improvement District (BID) companies are organisations which are independent of the Scottish Government. Projects, including the budgets and funding for these, which individual BID companies take forward are therefore a matter for each company.

Business

Jeremy Purvis (Tweeddale, Ettrick and Lauderdale) (LD): To ask the Scottish Executive what proportion of the amounts raised from businesses through Business Improvement District levies came from retailers.

John Swinney: This information is not held centrally. Amounts raised through Business Improvement District (BID) levies are a matter for each BID company.

Criminal Justice and Licensing (Scotland) Act 2010

James Kelly (Glasgow Rutherglen) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive whether its draft budget for 2011-12 contains specific funds to finance the implementation of section 18 of the Criminal Justice and Licensing (Scotland) Act 2010 and, if so, which budget line it is contained in.

Kenny MacAskill: The draft budget does not contain specific funds to finance the implementation of section 18 of the Criminal Justice and Licensing (Scotland) Act 2010. The Scottish Government remains committed to ending automatic unconditional early release and officials have been in discussion with a range of interests to determine how we can implement this effectively in light of the spending cuts passed down by the UK Government. We will review funding under the spending review proposals for 2012-13 and beyond.

Ministerial Engagements

George Foulkes (Lothians) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive what public engagements were undertaken by each minister between 23 December 2010 and 9 January 2011.

John Swinney: The Scottish Government is committed to pro-actively publishing all ministerial engagements three months in arrears. The information the member has requested will be published on the Scottish Government website in line with this commitment.

  You can access this information at:

  http://www.scotland.gov.uk/About/14944/MinisterialEngagements

Schools

Elaine Smith (Coatbridge and Chryston) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive what guidance it provided to local authorities regarding opening schools on 6 December 2010.

Michael Russell: The Scottish Government does not issue such guidance on or in respect of specific days. Decisions on the opening or closure of schools are best judged and taken locally in light of locally prevailing or forecast conditions.

Small Businesses

Joe FitzPatrick (Dundee West) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive how many properties in each local authority area are eligible for each level of relief under the Small Business Bonus Scheme in 2010-11 following the 2010 rates revaluation.

John Swinney: The following table shows the potential number of business properties eligible for relief under the Small Business Bonus Scheme (SBBS) in 2010-11 by local authority area.

  In order to encourage take-up of SBBS, the First Minister wrote to over 19,300 premises in December 2010 that are potentially eligible for SBBS, but have not yet claimed.

  

Local Authority
Potential Number of Business Properties Eligible for SBBS Relief



Aberdeen City
2,979


Aberdeenshire
6,027


Angus
2,889


Argyll and Bute
5,335


Clackmannanshire
858


Dumfries and Galloway
5,662


Dundee City
2,630


East Ayrshire
2,198


East Dunbartonshire
1,256


East Lothian
1,945


East Renfrewshire
876


Edinburgh, City of
8,719


Eilean Siar
1,373


Falkirk
2,485


Fife
6,435


Glasgow City
11,331


Highland
10,610


Inverclyde
1,200


Midlothian
1,476


Moray
2,659


North Ayrshire
2,775


North Lanarkshire
4,477


Orkney Islands
1,277


Perth and Kinross
4,751


Renfrewshire
3,084


Scottish Borders
4,491


Shetland Islands
1,127


South Ayrshire
2,573


South Lanarkshire
4,756


Stirling
2,529


West Dunbartonshire
1,452


West Lothian
2,385



  Notes:

  The table is based on a pre-December 2010 data set.

  Some of the above properties may already be in receipt of other reliefs up to the level of their SBBS relief eligibility.